The Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955

Aim : Examine the significance of the Montgomery Bus Boycott to the Civil Rights Movement

Montgomery, Alabama In the Southern states there was a policy of segregation on buses. White passengers would sit in the front rows of the bus, black passengers towards the back. If the front section of the bus was full, black passengers were expected to give up their seats. On the 1 st December, 1955, a Black woman called Rosa Parks challenged this segregation. Rosa Parks was an active member of the NAACP. Rosa was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white person.

Rosa Parks Her arrest led to a huge outcry amongst the Black community. 50 Black church leaders, including Martin Luther King met in a Montgomery church to discuss how to respond to this situation. They encouraged the local people to BOYCOTT the buses. Blacks made up 70% of the passengers on local buses. Their demands were ‘first come, first served’, Black bus drivers and better manners from white bus drivers.

The Impact of the Boycott The boycott lasted for 381 days and the bus companies lost a huge amount of money. During this time Martin Luther King inspired local people to sustain the boycott and campaign for their civil rights. The buses were officially desegregated in December 1956 – the bus companies had already started to desegregate – they could not afford to lose anymore passengers.

There comes a time when people get tired – tired of being segregated and humiliated; tired of being kicked about by the brutal feet of oppression… For many years we have shown amazing patience. We have sometimes given our white brothers the idea that we liked the way we were being treated………. One of the great glories of democracy is the right to protest from right… If you will protest courageously and yet with dignity and Christian love, when the history books are written in future generations, the historians will pause and say, ‘There lived a great people, the black people.’

Impact of the Boycott The boycott only ended one area of segregation Change had been achieved using peaceful, non- violent protest Martin Luther King emerged as the leader of the Civil Rights Movement Rosa Parks lost her job and moved to the northern state of Michigan

Rosa Parks Rosa Parks continued to speak for the Civil Rights cause throughout her life. She received various awards – the Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 1999, Time magazine named her as one of the 20 most influential and iconic figures of the 20 th century. She died on 24 th October, 2005 and in Montgomery and Detroit the front seats of the city buses were reserved with black ribbons.

Tasks: Copy and complete the flow chart from page 58 of your textbook ‘Free At Last’.